I’ll give you 650 million reasons why Kevin Reilly is leaving

Reilly’s departure would come after nearly nine years in the System’s top job and on the heels of an unusually contentious legislative session in which top lawmakers, mostly Republicans, excoriated him at public hearings, stripped a proposed funding increase for the System and froze tuition for the next two years for state residents. The System later extended the tuition freeze across the board to include out-of-state and graduate students.

Reilly, 64, appeared before legislators in January to explain a payroll glitch that initially caused nearly $33 million in benefits overpayments to employees. Then in April he was back for an even harsher public scolding, this time to explain nearly $650 million in reserve funds legislators say the System didn’t adequately disclose at a time it was also raising tuition at 5.5 percent a year, the maximum allowed by law.